RTP-area local music and culture

[andy fekete <andy.fekete AT gmail.com>]

Boat Burning will be playing two sets of live, 100% improvised damaged
psychedelia at FUSE in Chapel Hill on Sunday July 12 2009.

Music starts 10pm.

FUSE
403 West Rosemary St
Chapel Hill

BOAT BURNING:   LIVE.   PURE.   THROB.
http://www.myspace.com/boatburning


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from taiwan.net

"Ritual: ...The burning of the boat of the Plague God is a folk ritual
of the seafaring people in southwestern Taiwan. The festival is held
once every three years, around the ninth lunar month, at Donglong
Temple in Donggang..."

"...The celebrations run for eight days and seven nights. The purpose
of the ritual is to send the Plague God out to the sea, and diseases
along with him...

...According to custom, before the boat is set afire, devotees spend
weeks preparing themselves and the boat for its symbolic journey.
Then, on the last night of the ritual, a huge fire is made to force
bad spirits and the Plague God himself aboard, and the boat is burned
while the people pray for peace, the heat and light of the flames
warming their bodies and driving back, at least for a while, the evil
and darkness of the world that seek to do them harm...

...The festivities last all night."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCbAqEeqoS0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJa9T70Amfc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYWOu1ozV-E